"Two people gotta stick together..."
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Date
2011-09-08
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Abstract
The present thesis tries to obtain a better understanding how economic and
marriage-related decisions are linked to each other. The first part deals with
cross-spouse effects on economic decisions, in this case on health behavior and
on labor force participation at older age. The second part examines the impact
of various economic factors on the risk of marital dissolution. In summary, all
chapters show that there are strong interrelationships between the two most important aspects in life, namely family and career. However, we also see that men
and women react and behave differently. For instance, the wife has an effect on
the husband’s probability to see the doctor but not vice versa. Moreover, a female breadwinner increases the risk of divorce substantially which we cannot find for couples with a male main earner. Thus, the results suggest that economic theory and empirical analyses do not only have to consider the family background but also to distinguish between men and women.
Needless to say that there are still many open questions. For instance, except
in Chapter 2, we restrict the analysis to married couples since cohabitation is
less common among older people and moreover, separation has usually less severe
consequences if the couple is not married. Nevertheless, given the growing
acceptance and equal treatment under law, it becomes increasingly interesting to
extend the analyses to cohabiting couples.
Moreover, not only family structure has changed, work life is also changing. More
and more jobs, in particular for high-educated, require high flexibility and mobility by both, men and women. Consequently, for a larger section of the population, the success of a relationship is challenged by commuting and living apart together.
It is not fully known yet to what extent these factors alter the risk of separation.
Another interesting aspect is the new parental-leave regulation. The new law provides financial incentives for fathers to take a share of the legal parental-leave.
However, given our result that female and male breadwinners do not seem to be
perfect substitutes, the question is whether maternity and paternity leave have a
different effect on marital stability.
Thus, there are still many aspects we do not know but, to conclude with Tina
Turner, “some people gotta stay whatever and give one another shelter on a rainy
day”.
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Keywords
Familienökonomik, Partnereinfluss, Scheidungsdeterminanten